Managing fear

 “We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.” —Christian Nestell

     For most of us, the important reason for not taking any major decision or massive action in life is not due to lack of capability or resources, but the fear inside the mind. The moment we think of taking action  like  a change of job, taking more responsibilities, taking new initiatives, expanding the business etc , the first emotional response   would be  fear about failure or fear about rejection or even fear about success.

      Fear is normal, but the worst part is the moment fear creeps in, we drop the idea or taking action. Instead of abruptly dropping the idea, we can evaluate the fear with a rational approach as follows

Two questions shall be answered to justify the fear factor

1. What worst thing will happen if I take the idea into action?

2. What best thing will happen if I take the idea into action?

If you write the answer honestly to the above questions, you may get the following benefits or clarity on the below

1.   You estimate the maximum losses and your readiness to manage the losses or not .This helps to postpone the action until you get prepared to manage.

2.   Sometimes advantage may outweigh the losses. This helps you to take action.

     In either way, you get some clarity on the fear and this will help you either to take action or drop rather than worrying too much about the fear. You will be peaceful when you evaluate the fear with a rational approach!